Blaggards' debut Standards (NFA) is aptly named yet downplays their wonderfully exuberant, irreverent approach to well-known tunes such as "Foggy Dew" and "Rocky Road to Dublin." Thoroughly irresistible, the Houston quartet joins the ranks of kilt-wearing, ass-kicking Irish rockers willing to cross genres to get their point across, as on the fiddle-driven medley of "Folsom Prison Blues" and ever-moving "Fields of Athenry." Ten tunes leave the listener dying for more, like a pint of Guinness that's been shorted with too much foam.
MARGARET MOSER, AUSTIN CHRONICLE
